Pellet stove bliss

[FixedGearFlyer]

Sure, we're in the honeymoon stage, but WOW, we're loving the ease and automation of the pellet stoves we put in the shop (to replace a woodstove) and house (to supplement our wood furnace).

5 to 10 minutes of cleaning per day is a small price to pay for thermostat-controlled convenience and comfort, especially in the shoulder season. Heck, it only took 30 minutes to move 3 tons of pellets down into the basement. That, alone, saves multiple weekends of splitting, stacking, moving, and restacking firewood.

We'll still run the wood furnace in the house this winter, but will fall back on the pellet stove when we're gone during the day and overnight. We've done a lot of work with insulation and weather sealing already and gone from 8 to 10 full cords (with a Vogelzang Norseman) to 5 full cords (with a Drolet Tundra). My hope is to cut back from 5 full cords per winter to half that with the pellet stove kicking in to make up the difference.

In our shop, it will be 100% pellet stove, but that's a much easier ask: it's an open 1400 sq feet with excellent insulation and weather sealing that we built in 2013.

Anyway, just chipping in to offer some pellet stove love after a decade of slinging firewood.

 

[SidecarFlip]

5 or 10 minutes a day will cut the cheese for a while, until the fly ash builds up inside and in the venting and the motors start whining from dry bearings and then your bliss will evaporate to piss when it no longer functions correctly. Number one cause of issues is buildup of fly ash in the venting or behind the stove baffles and number two is failing motors because the bearings are shot.

The drive motors on a pellet burner live in a hostile environment of heat and dust and must be maintained on a regular basis. Most drive motors are shaded pole fractional horsepower, nothing to wear out, basically small induction - repulsion motors, only thing that fails are the armature bearings as a rule.

First heating season you might be ok but let it sit all summer and the next year, chances are it won't run and if it does, will be noisy from dey bearings or insufficient draft from clogged venting or a loaded with ash draft fan.

Good luck. 5 or 10 minutes won't cut it.

 

[MalcolmH]

I agree, I use to have a wood stove in a large shop, It was always a chore lighting it since it was cold every morning, plus I was dipping into the house wood supply, not to mention the mess of wood, paper and kindling taking up valuable work space, and then going inside the house and watching the chimney, and then going back out to reload and hopefully be warm enough to work,.. Now I just press a button go grab a coffee and the shop warms up on its own pretty quick even on half heat level, I could add a thermostat and set the on/off times but thats almost to luxurious for the shop and I don't mind pressing a button or two to light it and set the temp. This gives me a lot more time to actually do work in the shop.

 

[tlc1976]

There’s pros and cons to a pellet stove. Once you learn the ropes of keeping it clean it doesn’t take much time. Sooner or later parts are going to fail, after all they run for countless hours in a hostile environment. I keep spare parts on hand. I’m either going to haul wood or pellets so I choose pellets because they are cleaner. The added convenience is a big plus, and the safety controls and practically no risk of a chimney fire is priceless. My room blower quit once and the overheat switch shut it down safely.

 

[FixedGearFlyer]

5 or 10 minutes a day will cut the cheese for a while, until the fly ash builds up inside and in the venting and the motors start whining from dry bearings and then your bliss will evaporate to piss when it no longer functions correctly. Number one cause of issues is buildup of fly ash in the venting or behind the stove baffles and number two is failing motors because the bearings are shot.

The drive motors on a pellet burner live in a hostile environment of heat and dust and must be maintained on a regular basis. Most drive motors are shaded pole fractional horsepower, nothing to wear out, basically small induction - repulsion motors, only thing that fails are the armature bearings as a rule.

First heating season you might be ok but let it sit all summer and the next year, chances are it won't run and if it does, will be noisy from dey bearings or insufficient draft from clogged venting or a loaded with ash draft fan.

Good luck. 5 or 10 minutes won't cut it.

For sure. 5 or 10 minutes a day, always, plus regular pipe brushings, cleaning behind baffles, combustion and blower motor cleaning and maintenance . . . I'm on top of maintenance, I promise!

Both of our pellet stoves are the same model, so I have a spare ignitor and combustion fan ready to go, if they're needed.

Not much different than cleaning our wood furnace and I'm still in love with thermostats, autp ignition, and less firewood (ergo, more canoe paddling) in the warm months.

 

[FixedGearFlyer]

There’s pros and cons to a pellet stove. Once you learn the ropes of keeping it clean it doesn’t take much time. Sooner or later parts are going to fail, after all they run for countless hours in a hostile environment. I keep spare parts on hand. I’m either going to haul wood or pellets so I choose pellets because they are cleaner. The added convenience is a big plus, and the safety controls and practically no risk of a chimney fire is priceless. My room blower quit once and the overheat switch shut it down safely.

That's along the lines of my feelings, too.

Though I'm taking your opinion and Flip's opinion with a grain of salt, now. I see that you're both trolls from below the Bridge!

 

[FixedGearFlyer]

I agree, I use to have a wood stove in a large shop, It was always a chore lighting it since it was cold every morning, plus I was dipping into the house wood supply, not to mention the mess of wood, paper and kindling taking up valuable work space, and then going inside the house and watching the chimney, and then going back out to reload and hopefully be warm enough to work,.. Now I just press a button go grab a coffee and the shop warms up on its own pretty quick even on half heat level, I could add a thermostat and set the on/off times but thats almost to luxurious for the shop and I don't mind pressing a button or two to light it and set the temp. This gives me a lot more time to actually do work in the shop.

Our shop just switched from woodwork side-business to full-time family sewing business. I didn't mind walking into a 40 degree shop and wearing a jacket until noon while the woodstove got going, but now that my family is working side-by-side, we needed a more consistent, low effort heat source.

 

[SidecarFlip]

That's along the lines of my feelings, too.

Though I'm taking your opinion and Flip's opinion with a grain of salt, now. I see that you're both trolls from below the Bridge!

That is funny. I own property North of the bridge as well. Guess that makes me 'bi-polar'......

 

[Superwrench]

I totally agree! Hard to beat automation of a pellet stove. I'm going into the third season with my Harman absolute 63. So far it's logged over 7000 hours via the touch screen. This year I need to service the exhaust, I've never done that yet. I'm a firm believer in doing preventive maintenance on the warmer days vs, waiting for it to fail during the cold days.

 

[SidecarFlip]

My venting (exhaust) gets cleaned at least monthly (dump the accumulated fly ash from the bottom outside cleanout) and about midwinter, I put my leaf blower suction end on the bottom of the opened cleanout and suck the venting out (and turn the deck black...lol) Then in the spring, the venting comes apart and it gets pressure washed inside and reassembled.

My outside venting is all 4". I use a 3 to 4 cleanout Tee at the bottom and my venting extends vertically 18 feet with a vent cap on top.

Three things that cause poor performance and low heat output. One is not keeping the stove clean inside, I do that weekly with my shop vacuum and a drywall bag inside, various brushes and a putty knife, Two, poor quality fuel, I like Michigan Hardwood pellets and medium dent dry field corn, dried sown to 10% RM and clogged venting, especially in the horizontal run between the stove exhaust outlet and the exterior vertical. You get ash laying in the horizontal venting, that greatly impedes exhaust flow from the exhaust fan and causes the stove to become inefficient.

What works for me, might not be ideal for you as every install is different. Bottom line is however, a clean exhaust system greatly adds to the heating efficiency of ANY stove and that includes a chunk wood stove or a coal burner.

 

[SidecarFlip]

There’s pros and cons to a pellet stove. Once you learn the ropes of keeping it clean it doesn’t take much time. Sooner or later parts are going to fail, after all they run for countless hours in a hostile environment. I keep spare parts on hand. I’m either going to haul wood or pellets so I choose pellets because they are cleaner. The added convenience is a big plus, and the safety controls and practically no risk of a chimney fire is priceless. My room blower quit once and the overheat switch shut it down safely.

Stoves all rely on mechanical parts and parts like blowers and motors live in a hostile environment inside the enclosure and consequently they do fail, especially if not maintained correctly. I have to say that my present stove is 15 years old and I've never replaced any components other than a few skate bearings in the blower and exhaust fan motors. My spring SOP is tear it apart, remove all the motors and fans, blow them out, check the bearings and if they are tough, replace them. Gets dirty in there and motors don't like dirt and lint, especially fractional horsepower shaded pole drive motors. Don't have a ton of torque to begin with so keeping the frictional loss from dry bearings is paramount.

I 'listen' to my stove all the time and I can tell by the sound the mechanical parts are making, if something is not right.